Historic Maps
Dataset of the Week (Week 4)
Background
The Harvard Map Collection has a large number of historic, paper maps. You can visit them in person and a librarian will help you find a map that interests you and scan a copy of it. Make an appointment from this page:
I encourage you to visit the Map Collection in groups of three or four students (with related interests) so that we don’t overwhelm available appointments with our class.
Historic maps are a source of spatial data that can offer insight into what a place was like in the past, how it was perceived by those who made maps, and what mapmakers wished to communicate about places.
The maps that you create today serve a specific purpose, and this is true of historic maps as well.
Historic Maps of London (1854, 1898, 1914)
These three historic maps of London were each created at a different time for a different purpose.
John Snow’s Cholera Map (1854)
John Snow was an English doctor the time of an 1854 Cholera outbreak in the Broad Street region of London. Based on interviews with households with Cholera cases and his observations of water from a public pump located on Broad Street, he believed that the pump was the source of the outbreak. He created a map indicating the number of Cholera deaths at each address, and also showing the locations of public pumps. This map helped convince local officials to removed the handle from the Broad Street pump, which was followed by an immediate, sharp decline in Cholera cases.